It sounds like there are a lot of people out there who think the Surface Pro is not a tablet. How could you possibly think that? Maybe you don't know what a tablet is, so let's look it up on the internet. A tablet is a one piece mobile computer that typically offers a touchscreen with finger or stylus gestures acting as the primary means of control. There is nothing in the definition of a tablet computer that says anything about what the battery life should be, what type of processor it should use, what kind of operating system it should have, or what apps it should be capable of ...

Today I've got both the Surface Pro vs. Surface RT so we're going to compare them! First let's talk about weight. Neither of these feel heavy to me. The Pro is certainly heavier at 2lbs, versus the 1.5lb Surface RT, but even holding them both together is lighter than the camera I carry and definitely lighter than my old 4.7lb Tablet PC. Plus I have the advantage of extremely muscular upper body strength. The Pro has a much faster boot time and shutdown time which actually makes turning the tablet fully off not much different speed-wise compared to putting it into sleep mode. Resuming ...

We've already seen how well the Surface Pro performs with high-end desktop programs as well as Android apps. How about Linux? Since the Surface Pro hardware supports Hyper-V virtualization, it's extremely easy to install secondary operating systems in a Virtual Machine. Hyper-V is not enabled by default on the Surface Pro, so you'll have to turn that on first. To do this, swipe from the right edge to get the charms and tap the Search charm. Then tap "Settings" and type "Turn Windows Features On" in the search field. Tap the "Turn Windows Features on and off" item and scroll to ...

The two cameras built into the Surface Pro on the front and back are not professional quality at all. They're only 720p resolution, so basically they're only good for things like Skype video calls. Still the Surface Pro is for professionals, so I'm going to use it to control a full-sized digital single lens reflex camera connected via USB. In this video we'll be using a Nikon D7000 with the Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 software installed on the tablet. Most other professional DSLR camera brands are capable of connecting to similar software for remote camera control and image storage. ...

Watch today's Pocketnow Daily as we talk about the Ubuntu Tablet operating system and what's cool about it. Then we move to iOS 6.1.2 and how it fixes just some of the current bugs known. The iPhone 5S is next as we found its motherboard rocking a lot of improvements over the current model. The Microsoft Surface Pro takes the spotlight later as we show you how to run Android apps on it. We end today's show talking about the HTC One, and why this phone may change everything for HTC. All this and more after the break. Stories: - Ubuntu Releases Tablet Video Preview - Apple Releases iOS 6.1.2 ...

You've already seen how well full high-end desktop PC programs perform on the new Surface Pro from Microsoft. What about Android apps though? In the video below, we'll show you how to get your favorite Android apps on the Surface Pro using a new Windows 8 optimize version of the Bluestacks software. This software is an early version that's still in beta, so you can expect a few bugs, but still you'll notice that many things are working quite well. The Surface Pro does not have dedicated Android hardware buttons like "Back", "Home", or "Menu", so the Bluestacks software had to make virtual ...

Microsoft has been doing handwriting recognition for a very long time. They started promoting ink support in 2000 with the Pocket PCs which had inking and handwriting recognition as part of every "notes" field in any kind of data item. Contacts, Calendar appointments, etc. Then in 2002, inking became part of the Windows Tablet PCs. Today, that ink and handwriting recognition has evolved significantly and it really shows how far we've come in the Surface Pro with its included Wacom stylus. In the video below, we'll take a look at just how it works. You'll see how well it can ...

I know a lot of you out there are interested in seeing some real world performance tests with the Surface Pro, so in this video were going to show you just how fast this tablet is at things like rendering HD videos in Premiere Pro, Applying Photoshop Filters, opening RAW images, HTML5 Rendering, and some "League of Legends" game play. Booting up the device from a completely turned off state is extremely fast. If you're not going to use the Surface Pro for a while, shutting it down is not a problem since you can be back up and running within about 6 seconds. The web browser is also ...

One of the innovative features of the Surface Pro is the way you can magnetically attach the stylus to the edge of the tablet for safe keeping. It takes up a lot less room than a dedicated stylus silo would and it's pretty easy to just pull the stylus off the edge when needed. Unfortunately, the spot where the stylus attaches is also the magnetic charging port where you need to connect the cable in order to recharge the Surface Pro's battery. So what do you do with the stylus while the Surface Pro is charging? Another nice feature, which is not true of most other tablet styli, is the ...

One of the first things I did after I bought a new Microsoft Surface Pro was to install the Adobe Creative Suite that I often use in other projects. I was very excited to test out the 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity in Photoshop. Unfortunately it turned out that Microsoft did not implement the standard Wintab API's used by most high-end graphics applications to interpret pressure sensitivity from a stylus. The Surface Pro does use Wacom hardware which is what the Wintab API's were originally designed for. We know this because other Wacom styli do function with the Surface Pro. ...

Fans of Microsoft tablets have some interesting news today regarding both the Surface RT and the Surface Pro. The Surface RT with Windows RT is available in a new, 64GB, standalone version. It is going for US$599 and you'll need to add $100 if you want to purchase it together with the black Touch Cover. Additionally, the Surface RT will be available in additional markets starting February 14: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. If you prefer a richer experience then the Surface Pro with Windows ...

Last week, on the heels of the BlackBerry 10 launch event in Toronto, I crafted a pair of quick-and-dirty comparison videos showcasing the differences between the BB10 OS and the Windows Phone 8 and Android platforms. I admit that the set had its problems, filmed as it was under severe time constraints in a hotel room with horrible audio. Several factual errors needed to be corrected in editing, and we subsequently filmed some follow-up videos to offer a more thorough presentation. Still, neither Android nor Windows Phone came away from the analysis unscathed: in the categories we selected ...

Microsoft's Panos Panay, of the company's Surface Windows 8 Pro Engineering Team is engaging in a Reddit AMA today, and some of what he's had to say seems to suggest that Microsoft might be interested in releasing an enhanced version of the touch or type covers, packing in an extra battery to help extend the tablet's useful life per charge. Unlike the Surface RT, the Windows 8 Pro version adds in some extra connectors where its cover attaches. These large-surface-area contacts are just the kind you'd associate with carrying power, rather than data. In the AMA, one users asked Panay about ...

One man returns from a mission to Canada, and is greeted by friends. Friends with questions, observations, and inflammatory declarations about the future of a very special smartphone. A smartphone called BlackBerry. Yes, it's a special edition of the Pocketnow Weekly podcast, covering all the ups, downs, and all-arounds of the new Research in Motion BlackBerry smartphone platform, BlackBerry 10, as well as the sleek black slab of potential it's riding on, the Z10. Join us as we welcome an old friend back into the smartphone space by discussing things like Peeking, Balance, Hub, and even ...

Watch today's Pocketnow Daily as we talk about Nokia's MWC 2013 Press event details. We later go through some more Nokia news as we now have Windows Phone 7.8 information for legacy Lumia devices. The white Nexus 4 takes the spotlight next, but with the tough reality of getting the black model, we don't know if we should celebrate. Microsoft is next as we discover that the Surface Pro can barely provide you with storage if you stick to the 64GB model. We end today's show by talking about BlackBerry 10, the Z10 and Q10, aside from some bloopers at the end. All this and more after the break. ...

Yesterday the tech news world was up in arms about the news regarding how much free space would be available on the Surface Pro's 64Gb and 128Gb solid state drives upon first boot. Many articles suggested that the used disk space was "unusable", which of course is not true. The 64Gb model will have 23Gb of free space, and the 128Gb model will have 83Gb of free space. Yes it is kind of unfair that so much should be pre-loaded on the devices, but if you've ever used Windows you might know that there are ways to delete things that you don't want or need. Some have been able to get ...

Here's when you start to debate if the word "Pro" is really worthy of a product's name. While some of us are both excited or simply underwhelmed by the news of the Microsoft Surface Pro reaching retail stores on February 9th, it seems that choosing the right Surface will be crucial to satisfy your needs. As it turns out, if you choose to go for the 64GB entry-level model, you won't be left with much to actually do with your "tablet that's also a PC device". You'll barely be left with 23GB of usable storage, and we don't think many of you had even started high school when dealing with that ...

Jaime posted an article yesterday pointing out a few reasons why he is no longer excited about the Microsoft Surface Pro. I'm a different type of person though, and I was very excited to hear that the Surface Pro would be available on February 9th. Sure it's a couple weeks later than originally expected due to retailer refresh cycle scheduling, but I fully intend to line up to buy one that weekend. The reason I consider myself different from most of the other tech journalists out there is that this isn't my only job. I have other jobs that require other skills that make use of ...

Life frequently defies our expectations. For example, if it's your first full season covering mobile-technology trade shows, sometimes you find your expectations for a nice, quiet lull between CES and MWC completely upset -toppled, really- by reality. For this editor, that reality came fast and fierce, delivering an unbelievable bounty of rumor and speculation at his doorstep on the morning of this week's Pocketnow Weekly podcast. The bright side: you get to hear all the latest news and gossip surrounding Galaxy S IV and Note 8.0 speculation; HTC's Droid DNA upgrade with a very James ...

I've spent a day full of second thoughts. Back when Microsoft announced the Surface in two flavors, both an RT and a Pro version, I immediately jumped the gun and said I'd wait for the Pro. I've always been frustrated by the fact that the iPad is not a work machine, and I seriously find it annoying to have to haul my laptop everywhere. I borrowed Brandon's RT Surface in Vegas back when we were covering CES just to make sure I was doing the right thing, and as it turned out I was, since going RT would've just been adoption another iPad when it came to usability. There was really no point in ...

Watch today's Pocketnow Daily as we talk about the additional rumors of more than one iPhone being launched in 2013. Then Microsoft takes the spotlight as we talk about the official Microsoft Surface Pro announcement when it comes to pricing and availability. The LG Optimus G Pro is next as it just became official in Japan, and there are a lot of cool things coming with the device. Then we move to the Galaxy S IV as some of the news show some leaked image renders of how the device will look, and the other news show that the launch date will most likely not be on MWC 2013. We end today's ...

Ever since the Surface RT launched, we've been anxiously awaiting the debut of its big brother, the beefier, Windows-8-Pro-running Surface. In late November, Microsoft finally revealed pricing data for the Surface Pro, but we still didn't have a firm date for its availability, beyond sometime in January. Well, we're deep into the month at this point, with no sign of any new Surface models; what gives? Today, Microsoft provides the Surface Pro a release date, and while it's going to miss that January window, it won't be by much: the Windows 8 Pro Surface will go up for sale on February 9. ...

Back around the turn of the century, personal digital assistants (PDAs) were a popular secondary device that people would carry to help manage contacts, appointments, mobile web clippings, notes, and other mobile computing functions that you couldn't do with a mobile phone. PDA's had touch-sensitive screens that were much larger than the mobile phone screens of the time and gave you a nice area to get more work done. The power users of the time would often pair a Bluetooth capable mobile phone like the Sony Ericsson T68i with a powerful PDA like a Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC. The Bluetooth ...

The new Lexington platform for mobile devices in emerging markets is not the only thing that came out of Intel's labs at this year's CES. The chip-maker also announced its new line-up of low-power Ivy Bridge processors meant to drive ultrabooks and tablets. Offering five times the performance of the now quite stale NVIDIA Tegra 3, the new processors draw much less power then the current low-power processors, specifically 7 watts instead of 17. The upcoming Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S, shown off at CES, is not the only device that will pack these new processors. Apparently, Microsoft's ...

According to "Taiwan-based notebook supply chain makers", tablets powered by Microsoft's Windows RT and Windows 8 are hard to sell; this assessment is based on low sales figures since Windows 8 was launched in late October. There are two core problems with the Microsoft-powered tablets, according to the same sources: first and foremost, they are priced higher than competing slates powered by Google's Android operating system. Second, the sources claim that the poor software title collection is also a big problem which is not helping sales at all; compared to the selection available in the ...